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The Pleasant Practice That Can Relieve Menstrual Cramps
Body and mind
A study claims that this practice can be a natural pain reliever for period pain
El menstrual pain It is a very common thing, but not much talked about. Either out of modesty, or out of habit, it is often difficult to talk about it. It is also downplayed: you feel pain, take a pill, and go on with your day to day.
But, all doctors agree: this should not be normal; if you do not have a specific pathology, such as endometriosis, or polycystic ovary syndrome, pain should not be experienced on period days. One of the big problems is that although these symptoms are common, they are not frequently investigated. For this reason, many times when suffering menstrual pain, you tend to take a pain reliever without asking many more questions. But, there are other options to try to alleviate and improve the pain.
The studio Menstrubation, Womanizer has investigated whether masturbation can help reduce menstrual cramps. Ana Lombardía, a psychologist and sexologist, commented during the presentation of the study that women, in general, “have learned to live with menstruation”, and many times “they already take it for granted that they are sick.” But, he stressed, this should not be the normal paradigm. Dr. Miriam Al Adib, a collaborating gynecologist with Womanizer, explained that “Pain, because it cannot be measured, does not mean that it does not exist”. For this reason, both professionals supported the importance of seeking methods beyond drugs to be able to improve menstrual pain, so normalized.
The results of the study have proven that the practice of masturbation can be beneficial in reducing menstrual cramps. The highly summarized results reflect that 90% of all participants recommended masturbation for pain relief. Although 43% chose medication as the best method, an adjusted 42% opted for masturbation. The remaining 15% assured that a combination of both was the most effective.
What happens in the body
Regarding these results, Dr. Al Adib highlighted that, during the masturbation process “a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters is released that, apart from generating pleasure, behave as authentic natural painkillers: oxytocin, endorphins, dopamine ». Therefore, he praised the virtues of adopting the practice during the days of the menstrual cycle. In addition, he commented at this time, metabolism and blood circulation are also stimulated, they counteract pain. Ana Lombardía added that it is important at least to know that, to improve this type of pain, there are other options that are not “swelling to ibuprofen.”
The doctor also commented that “we are not only a body, but also a mind”, because of what both things include in our pain and how we perceive it. He argued that, in general, many pain that women suffer is associated with stress or nerves and, therefore, they are medicated. “Women take twice as many psychoactive drugs as men, since many problems with other solutions are medicated,” he pointed out. To conclude, Ana Lombardía left a reflection on this type of pain and problems associated with menstruation: they tend to hide, not to give an image of “weak”.
How does the study work?
486 people participated in the study. This focused on two variables: the intensity of the pain and its frequency, taking as a reference a scale from 1 to 10, where the participants had to describe the intensity of the pain. The mean pain of the participants during the period was 6,7 points. When the study ended, it dropped to 5,4. On pain frequency, this also decreased. On average, the score was 7,4 points in the initial questionnaire. After the testing phase, the score decreased by 2,8 points to 4,6.